Although the current Once Caldas (
"Caldas Eleven") was founded in 1961 from the merger of
Deportes Caldas and
Once Deportivo, both were founding clubs of the
Campeonato Profesional, as the Colombian professional football league was originally named, and both took part in the first edition held in
1948. Founded in 1930, Once Deportivo was the club's oldest predecessor, but did not enjoy much success in its participations in the football league: in 1948 it placed ninth out of 10 teams, ninth as well in
1949 but with 14 teams, second-from-bottom with 16 teams in
1950, and ninth again in its final season in
1951. Meanwhile, Deportes Caldas (founded in 1947), were more successful in the competition. They placed third in the first edition of the league, and two years later they won their first league title with Alfredo Cuezzo as manager, playing 30 matches, winning 20, drawing 5, and losing 5, scoring 91 goals and conceding 48. In the 1951 Colombian championship, which would also be Deportes Caldas's final participation in the tournament, the team finished tenth out of 18 teams. Both Deportes Caldas and Once Deportivo went defunct after the 1951 season and were replaced intermittently in later seasons by another team called
Atlético Manizales, which for its first season in
1952 was formed with players from both sides, however, plans to revive either of the original clubs started being discussed. Carlos Gómez Escobar was in favor of reviving Deportes Caldas, but Eduardo Gómez Arrubla's idea was to bring back Once Deportivo. Thanks to the mediation of Dr. Hermán Bueno Ramírez, the three co-founders reached a compromise to merge the previous clubs into a new entity named Once Caldas. The merged club joined the league ahead of the
1961 season under the license that formerly belonged to Deportes Caldas, and played its first match on 12 March 1961, a 3–2 loss to
Deportivo Pereira. In that year, the club finished seventh in the league table. Due to financial reasons, in 1972 Once Caldas became the first Colombian club to showcase a sponsor on its shirt, and starting from that year it lent its name to the different sponsors it had during that period, changing its name to
Cristal Caldas in 1972,
Varta Caldas in 1979, back to
Cristal Caldas four years later and finally
Once Philips in 1991. The club dropped the practice of adopting its sponsor's name in 1993, reverting to its original name. In the
1997 Adecuación tournament, Once Caldas finished in second place of their semifinal group and advanced to the third place play-off where they faced
Millonarios. Although they lost on bonus points after each team won one match in the series, Once Caldas were awarded a spot in the
1998 Copa CONMEBOL since Millonarios declined to participate in order to enter the
1998 Copa Merconorte. Following the Kenworth takeover, the team qualified for the final stages of both the Apertura and Finalización championships during the
2013 and
2014 seasons. From then on, it only made it out of the first stage in the
2015 Finalización, and both tournaments of the
2018 season. In 2018, the club also finished runner-up in the
Copa Colombia to Atlético Nacional. The following year they took part in the
Copa Sudamericana for the first time, losing to Paraguayan side
Deportivo Santaní in the first round. Starting from 2019, Once Caldas would not reach the final stages of the league tournament for six years and became heavily involved in relegation contention as a result of the poor campaigns in these seasons, but the club's poor streak ended with the return of club legend
Dayro Moreno, since his goalscoring helped the club advance to the semifinal stage of the
2024 Apertura, after placing eighth with 29 points in the first stage before being knocked out; in the Finalización tournament the club also reached the semifinals following a seventh place finish in the regular phase but missed out on the tournament finals after losing their last semifinal match. ==Uniform==